Burn Notice Season Six Aftermath And Speculation For Season Seven

Hello Burners out there as I've heard the fans are being called these days. We may be between seasons right now, but that doesn't have to stop us from looking back on what's happened so far and speculating on what's to come in the near future. First off, let's take a look at what happened with the season six finale.

It was aired as a two hour special, but listed as two separate episodes. In the first part, we see Michael and the rest of the team getting more than a little intimidated by the relentlessness of their CIA persuer, Olivia Riley. In fact, things have gotten so bad that the entire team is just attempting to get safely out of the country, even taking Michael's mom with them, in hopes of lying low until they can "put things right" as Sam has already put to Michael a couple times now.

These plans don't work out too well and long story short, Jesse gets captured and Sam gets shot and is badly wounded. In fact, Sam was looking so bad that just by the previews I was wondering if we'd see him again next season. Luckily, Fiona had an ex of sorts that happened to be an EMT I guess. He reluctantly came to their aid and did what he could for Sam, but as the wound had done internal damage and they couldn't risk taking Sam to a hospital for surgery, things were definitely not looking good.

Meanwhile, Michael makes a deal with the devil of sorts in the form of joining forces with His old frenemy, Bly. Michael's idea was to get Bly in on Riley's ilegal use of a drug cartel in her pursuit of Michael and the others to demonstrate how far outside of the law she was willing to go to get him and possibly the fact that she didn't really care if Michael actually deserved to go to prison or whatever other plans she had in mind for him. Things looked to be going pretty well until Bly stupidly fell for what turned out to be one of the drug cartel's men who was undercover himself during Bly and Michael's stake out. One hand grenade and a faulty seat belt later and Bly is taking part in a bonfire inside of his own car. Not pretty, but as usual, Michael escapes.

I won't ruin all the surprises or go step by step down each and every event of the finale, but where we all end up is with Michael and the rest of the team in custody, but at least with Riley confessing as to her own unlawful actions. Then, in the final scene, we see Sam, Fiona, and the whole team released as Michael walks in, giving orders to CIA agents and wearing a suit. It becomes obvious at this point that Michael is working with the CIA again. What isn't as obvious is whether or not he was doing this before or after the events which lead to Riley's hunting of the team or even Bly's death. The reaction Fiona has is one which shouldn't be too surprising to anyone who's been watching the show the last year or two. She is disgusted with Michael and confronts him. He says he did what he had to do. And her reply is that he did what he Wanted to do.

I'd say Fi needs to be a little more grateful that she isn't going to be going to prison, isn't being hunted at the moment, and oh yea, is still alive. That all aside though, she does have a point. If it turns out that Michael had been working deep undercover with the CIA all along, then how could he put not only his friends, but his family at such risk? Sam nearly died and yet Michael didn't break his silence or arrange for Sam's treatment until he had Riley's confession. Now, a mission is a mission and all that crap. And when you're a spy maybe that's all there is to it. But that doesn't mean that the rest of the team let alone Michael's mother is going to see it that way. And I don't think it would really be realistic if they did.

This leaves lots of potential ways for the next season to go. This is a different type of ending from previous seasons in that we do have a potential new status quo, but rather than having a new big bad or a new ball of government or political crap for Michael to try to get out of, we have Michael himself possibly being the biggest problem and having a lot of fences to mend. Sam was already in a bad state of mind where his and Michael's relationship was concerned. Add to that the fact that he nearly died and if Michael COULD have called the whole thing off, saved Sam, and DIDN'T..... Well, Hey. What are friends for? Maybe Sam won't be around next season for Michael to kick around. I've got to say that friend or not, at this point, if I were in Sam's shoes I think I'd figure I'd earned a government paid relocation to anywhere Michael Westen is NOT and take my leave of the whole mess. And I think that's an entirely possible direction for them to go with the character. It would be believable and leave the door open for Sam to return in the future if they choose to do that. I don't really want to see that character go though. I was a Bruce Campbell fan way before Burn Notice was ever on the air. Still, the show may be heading in that direction.

Another character to consider is Michael's mom. She already lost her son and Michael's brother, Nate, earlier in the season. Imagine if THAT could have been avoided by Michael simply calling off his cover or calling in someone to get Nate out of harm's way. Now, its true that we certainly don't know that Michael had any pull or even if he was undercover at that point, but if I'm asking myself about that, I'd have to think that his mom would realistically be wondering the same thing and that would definitely be a possible road for them to go down with her. And like with Sam, her relationship with Michael had been strained as of late anyway. Michael just couldn't seem to get along with anyone this past season for more than like an hour. It's really amazing this guy has any friends at all. Makes me feel better about my own social life though.

Then, there's Fiona again. I already mentioned her emotional reaction to seeing Michael at the end of the finale. She'd been on again, off again with Michael for so long there were times I wished she'd either die or move or they'd freakin' get married. Something. Just make it stick. Hearing the same boring and obvious arguments from episode to episode was starting to wear pretty thin. That being said, I can definitely seee how she'd feel betrayed at this point by Michael and possibly more so than any other character. Then, there's Jesse who definitely has his own reasons to not be too happy with Michael like the rest, but not to the same extent. That being said, he's also been with the team the least amount of time and if given the opportunity for his own clean slate could, I could easily see him having the least amount of problem with just stepping away from Michael. So, when you look at it as a whole, there's really not one person at the end of season six who we can really truly count on to not bail on Michael at some point in season seven. What's worse is who could really blame any of them? whatever happens, I somehow doubt that we'll see Michael's life getting much easier. I'm also fairly certain that we're going to see plenty of gun fights, explosions, and creative solutions to some desperate situations. And as soon as all that starts, check in on me here for some reviews and to catch up on anything you might've missed. Until then, just remember that if you don't have a bullet proof vest and you expect to run into gunfire, old phone books can make excellent shields when you line your car doors with them. Guess where I learned that little tidbit of useful knowledge.